Superior, Wisconsin

Area Profile

26,677 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Superior, in Douglas County.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 43% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 47% of 3,904 cities measured58
Schools2182nd of 2,668 cities measured26
Growth2412th of 2,973 cities measured31
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 cities measured100
Climate4205th of 4,223 cities measured47
Physical resilienceTop 31% of 4,182 cities measured75
Access2508th of 4,226 cities measured89
Economic stability2425th of 4,226 cities measured57
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 11 units authorized over the past twelve months, 27% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 2.8 times it.

A major airport is 12 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
26,677
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,216
Bottom 46% nationally
Density
728/sq mi
36.6 sq mi of land
Median age
39.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Douglas County
Wisconsin
Metro area
Duluth, MN-WI
Nearest major airport
DLH
12 mi · Duluth Intl
Median home value
$180,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.8% over the past year, to 13,892 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,466$64,216Bottom 46%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,824$37,690Top 38%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.3%Top 41%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.4 minBottom 10%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.1%Top 32%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,892Bottom 11%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.3%Bottom 46%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.8%Top 15%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force14,525Bottom 12%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation65.6%Top 32%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,560Bottom 21%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,000Bottom 42%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.3%Top 37%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.32.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k52k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,216 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Duluth, MN-WI
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides5,660$36,390
Registered Nurses4,410$96,940
Retail Salespersons3,490$34,650
Cashiers3,290$33,020
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,910$29,260
General and Operations Managers2,690$85,930

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

23% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 32% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
22.8%
Bottom 12% in Wisconsin
Reading proficiency
32.2%
Bottom 26% in Wisconsin
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Superior HighSuperior School District1,25615.0
Superior MiddleSuperior School District88813.712%32%
Northern Lights ElementarySuperior School District45313.317%23%
Cooper ElementarySuperior School District36314.022%31%
Great Lakes ElementarySuperior School District34816.642%42%
Bryant ElementarySuperior School District28316.638%45%
Four Corners ElementarySuperior School District20016.730%19%
Superior Community PreschoolSuperior School District10954.5

15.3% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Wisconsin’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $900 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
16.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$900
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$180,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.81Bottom 47%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.6%Bottom 21%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±21612,776Top 5%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$70$900Bottom 41%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,018$180,400Bottom 48%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.8%Bottom 37%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 35%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
31/ 100
Ranks 2412 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 26,620 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
11
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 19% nationally
Year over year
−27%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202427k27k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20222023202420251911
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+18%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 78°F and January a low of 2°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 31.2 inches, including 90.2 inches of snow.

-10°10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station DULUTH, 11.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation31.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall90.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low2°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high78°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing56°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

75 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, heat wave and lightning.

LightningModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, winter weather, hail, wildfire, strong wind, tornado, ice storm, coastal flooding, landslide, drought, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Douglas County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.5 per 100,000 residents in Douglas County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Douglas County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Superior rather than Superior itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Duluth IntlDLH12 mi10,591 ft
Chippewa Valley RgnlEAU129 mi8,101 ft
Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold-ChamberlainMSP137 mi11,006 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
59
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Other cities in Duluth, MN-WI

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
DuluthSt. Louis County87,09360vs Superior
HibbingSt. Louis County16,05757vs Superior
CloquetCarlton County12,53757vs Superior
HermantownSt. Louis County10,21863vs Superior

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Superior

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
5488030,312$68,27559
548743,690$89,06364